4 August 2016

J&K: Indian Media Should Focus On Pak Crimes And Pandits, Not Separatist Agenda

August 2, 2016

Is there a conspiracy behind attempts to keep the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir on the boil and create the impression that it is ready to embrace Pakistan? 

The Pakistani designs on Kashmir are all too familiar – but all their attempts have failed. 

It is inexplicable that India does not react to the Pakistani propaganda about ‘atrocities’ in Kashmir. 

India cannot withdraw its forces from the state as long as the threat from Pakistan and their local hirelings exists. 

The Indian government has to show more firmness in dealing with the pro-Pakistan militants.

Is there a conspiracy behind attempts to keep the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir on the boil and create the impression that it is ready to embrace Pakistan? 

The incidents of violence and clashes are becoming frequent, which help the anti-India propaganda blast from Pakistan reach a crescendo.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, with his roots in Anantnag (Sanskrit term that means Infinite snake), from where the present Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has won a decisive electoral mandate, hopes to see the state become a part of his land of Islamist zealots.

Hence his ‘advice’ to India: accept ‘defeat’ in Kashmir. And his de facto Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz’s undiplomatic advisory to India is: ‘Shut Up’.

The delusional Pakistanis are, in fact, already celebrating the ‘accession’ of Kashmir to the land of the pure after observing a ‘Black Day’ in sympathy with a Kashmiri terrorist gunned down by Indian security forces.

The Pakistani designs on Kashmir are all too familiar – but all their attempts have failed.They have tried all tricks, direct military attacks and regularly pushing in saboteurs and terrorists into Kashmir, but the consequences have been more disastrous for them than for India.

Pakistan today stands condemned in the world as the epicentre of terrorism and with a society where Muslims are setting upon each other. The Pakistani passport is among the least desirable travel documents in the world. Its only steady friend is China, both countries driven by a desire to thwart India’s rise.

Indians need not draw any consolation from the plight of the benighted neighbour beyond the Radcliff Line.

While Pakistan is becoming more audacious, to the stage where UN-designated terrorists openly lead anti-India tirades from across the border, the strongest response from New Delhi thus far is to ask Islamabad not to ‘interfere’ in our internal affairs. Can anyone in his/her senses believe that a rogue and irresponsible nation like Pakistan heeds that kind of ‘warning’?

True, a military option may not be available, given Pakistan’s oft-declared threat to use its nuclear arsenal, but surely there are other options, including diplomatic and economic, that can bring the Rawalpindi-based GHQ Shura and Islamabad-based political leaders whose hearts beat to the tunes of the Hafeez Saeeds and Masood Azhars, to their senses. Why can’t New Delhi show an iron first?

A pertinent question in this context: Does the government of India find itself at a disadvantage in dealing with Kashmir with a firm hand because of media criticism? The media criticism largely stems from the local government’s inability to find a way to solve people-related problems. It is also directed at the increasing dependence on security forces.

While ordinary Kashmiris may not be attracted to calls for violence by Pakistani puppets, they are vigorously incited by these very elements to resort to violence against the police and security forces to serve their perverse ends.

The Hurriyat separatists, heavily financed by the Pakistanis, even as they are scared of the ballot box, and militants armed by their Pakistani handlers, are shameless in defending violence and incitement to violence. Their Pakistani masters provide them help with the sole purpose of destabilising India.

The Indian government has to show more firmness in dealing with the state-backed terrorists and the unpardonable act of driving out the Pandits from the Valley has to be broadcast again and again.

Self-styled Kashmiri leaders, who accuse the Indian forces of killing ‘innocent’ Kashmiris, have Indian blood on their hands for which they have not yet been made accountable. It is time make this obvious.

The Indian government is often advised to talk to the Kashmiri separatists. This advisory makes little sense when the Hindu minority in the state is kept out of the loop in any projection of dialogue.

The least that Delhi can do is to make sure that in any future ‘comprehensive’ dialogue the Kashmiri Pandits are included. That has to be a pre-condition if the Pakistani puppets have to be included.

Those who advocate talks with the Kashmiris (read pro-Pakistan Kashmiris) will have us believe that the Indian security forces are a trigger-happy lot who shoot for pleasure. And, according to them, this situation will disappear the moment the legal provision that provides immunity to the armed forces from harassment by prosecution is removed from the statute books.

No bigger lie has been spoken.

Do the Pakistani and local terrorists who gun down innocent people in Kashmir and elsewhere in India do so out of any pious intention? 

An eye –for- eye and blood–for-blood position may not be a good tactic but you cannot be one-sided in decrying bloodshed.

It is inexplicable that India does not react to the Pakistani propaganda about ‘atrocities’ in Kashmir. India cannot withdraw its forces from the state as long as the threat from Pakistan and their local hirelings exists.

It is bizarre to suggest that India does not need a huge army presence in Kashmir when the Pakistanis have repeatedly made it plain that they would take Kashmir by force.

India should be telling the world that Pakistan has one of the most brutal armies on the globe, going back to the time of the Bangladesh war and right up to the present times when the occupied territory of Balochistan is fully under the Pakistani jackboot.

The Pakistani case on Kashmir rests on religious affinity. Therefore, questions that Pakistan has to be asked repeatedly are: How much have you done to make even Muslims of different sects feel safe in your country? Have you forgotten your abominable record in protecting your Hindu, Sikh, and Christian minorities?

Time to raise the decibel levels against Pakistan’s falsehood.

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